Top 5 Healthcare Technology Trends for 2017
Discover what the accelerating convergence of IT and Healthcare will offer in the new year, including advancements in telemedicine, data storage, data mining, health information exchange, and security.
By the time you finish reading this blog, I’d almost bet that some much bigger news will already be hitting the Healthcare IT industry. Since Meaningful Use (the popular regulatory clause applied to Electronic Health Records, or EHRs, also known as Electronic Medical Records, or EMRs) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the healthcare industry has been energized with a steady flow of technological advancements and innovations. Healthcare and Technology are now inextricably linked. No modern discussion on Healthcare would be complete without a discussion about the big investments being made in Health IT infrastructure.
As we prepare for the holiday season and the brand new year ahead, it’s only fitting that we discuss some of the big trends and likely predictions for Health IT in 2017. Here are my top five topics:
- Telemedicine
- Data Mining and Data Warehouses
- Health Information Exchange
- Data Storage and Archiving
- Security
1. Telemedicine
EMRs exploded onto the healthcare scene with the incentives provided by the Affordable Care Act. Today, EMR is mainstream in a very big way; however, emerging out of the shadow of EMR is Telemedicine (TM).
TM shares the same promise EMRs made eight years ago—to change the way healthcare information is obtained and transferred. TM leverages telecommunications technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) for the remote diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients. While the insurance industry has not yet caught up with their own pricing models and coding, the impacts on Population Health Management and healthcare costs are profound and will be felt worldwide. The benefits of TM include breaking down geographic barriers and facilitating improved access to care while simultaneously reducing time and cost.
But the impact of TM goes way beyond breaking down geographic limitations. Hospitals and large medical facilities will be utilizing TM between departments and staff for patient management and real-time patient health information sharing. Soon, that routine medical office visit that you’ve been putting off may take place in your own living room.
2. Data Mining and Data Warehouses
As long as we have had healthcare, we have also had enormous amounts of data. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) combined with data mining and database management systems are just beginning to revolutionize changes in healthcare by extracting health information and transforming it for forensic use.
Think about what we could discover about disease management, treatment efficacy, and population health management just to name a few of the most significant benefits. I don’t know about you but it gives me goose bumps. With valuable, extractable health data, the possibilities really are endless.
3. Health Information Exchanges
Health Information Exchange (HIE) refers to the structured sharing and flow of health information between providers, hospitals, health systems, regional networks, and even internationally. The HIE is alive and well and continues to have a bright future. HIEs are not new by any means. Originating in legacy systems and older EMR technology, tomorrow’s HIE promises major improvements over past limitations. The path toward the standardization of health information (and, in turn, the interoperability of such data) has been the goal of the Health Level Seven International (HL7) working group since 1987. Disparate legacy systems of the past have struggled under the weight of difficulties associated with the exchange of health data.
The HIE of the future will be built around a more intuitive exchange of specific data sets for the tasks at hand. In addition, not to be understated, is the need for, and promise of, enhanced security and protection of patient health records and personal health information. Yes, the future of the HIE and all that goes with it is bright indeed.
4. Data Storage and Archiving
“He who owns the data…”
When I first entered the healthcare field many years ago, I heard this phrase echoed everywhere I went. Each year, as more patient health records and medical data was available electronically, the truer this statement became. What this statement was implying all along was that a healthcare system is defined by its data, and the keys to its success or failure, lie within the storage, archiving, and use of that data. It’s true and I subscribe to this view completely.
But wait, there’s more! We just mentioned the term interoperability above. Data storage and archiving are basic functions; however, what they will yield in the future, namely interoperability and functionality are vastly more significant. For example, soon, a patient can reasonably expect that records from her ER visit last week can be properly extracted and viewed by her own doctor when she goes for a follow-up evaluation? The promise of data storage and archiving with neutrality for ease of interoperability is an exciting and necessary change whose time is long past due.
5. Security
“Security breach…”
Walk into any hospital’s office of the CEO, CIO, or CMIO and utter those two words and chances are good (if they didn’t faint straight away) that they will turn white with terror. While the cost of personal health information (PHI) on the open market has decreased in recent months, healthcare security continues to share center stage in the industry.
In mid-2016, a “successful hack” of a U.S. health insurer was announced and their stolen database of over nine million records was made available for sale on a marketplace. Cyberattacks and security breaches are a fact of life in the industry. More a question of when and not if. The reliable protection of PHI and other healthcare data will demand the highest levels of security, breach training, and security awareness programs available.
Those are my five top picks. We will likely see a few more big trends for Health IT in 2017. Some of our predictions may not arrive as quickly as we’d all like, but one assertion remains crystal clear: we really cannot discuss the future of healthcare access, costs, or quality without also including in that discussion the promising investments being made in its robust IT infrastructure.